Tape drives, such as a linear tape data storage system, provide storage on a magnetic tape. Traditionally, tape drives are used for backup or archival storage in which data is written to the tape in a sequential order and read from the tapes in the same order. While these sequential read/write versions previous iterations of the tape drive may be limited to sequential access, conventional tape drive access systems can mimic the operation of a conventional disc or flash drive in that they can provide non-sequential access to data stored on the tape. This access is provided by moving the tape relative to a read head until the head is aligned with a portion of the tape on which the desired data is written.